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Economic Incentive: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama in February of 2009. The Recovery Act provided various economic incentives in order to address the national economic crisis. The incentives included tax cuts and benefits, funding for entitlement programs, and funding for contracts, grants, and loans. Its intention was to create new jobs, keep existing jobs, and encourage economic activity. Recipients of the Recovery Act funds are required to submit reports every January, April, July, and October; the data from these reports are publicly available at Recovery.gov. On July 30, 2012, Drawing Detroit retrieved the most recent data on the distribution of Recovery Act funds from Recovery.gov to examine how the act impacted Michigan.

The first chart shows the 10 states in the nation with the highest amount of awarded Recovery Act funds cumulative from February 2009. California has been awarded the most funds at over $34.7 billion. Michigan has been awarded the eighth highest amount at over $8.6 billion, approximately a quarter of the amount awarded to California.

The second chart shows the 10 states with the highest number of recipient reported jobs in Quarter 2, 2012 (April 1 – June 30, 2012) based on the Recovery Act funds. Many of the same states appear in both charts, but some do not. Michigan is not in the top 10 for the number of jobs; it is 14th in the nation with 3,293 jobs created through the Recovery Act. California has the highest value with 19,024 recipient reported jobs.

The first chart shows the total Recovery Act funds awarded to the states that border at least one of the five Great Lakes; the amounts are cumulative from February 2009. The total amount of funds awarded to Michigan is approximately half the amount awarded to New York, which received over $17 billion. Michigan has been awarded funding similar to amounts awarded to Ohio and Pennsylvania.

The second chart shows the number of Recovery Act recipient reported jobs for the eight Great Lakes states; the numbers are for Quarter 2, 2012 (April 1 – June 30, 2012).

Eleven agencies have each awarded over $100 million Recovery Act funds to recipients in the State of Michigan. The first chart shows the total amount of funds awarded cumulative from February, 2009 from each of those agencies. The Department of Education has awarded the highest amount of funds in Michigan (i.e., over $2.6 billion). The Department of Energy has awarded over $1.6 billion, and the Department of Transportation has awarded over $1.3 billion. The remaining eight agencies have each awarded less than $600 million to recipients in Michigan.

The second chart shows the number of jobs in Quarter 2, 2012 (April 1 – June 30, 2012) that Michigan recipients reported for the funds awarded by the 11 agencies. Recipients reported about 766 jobs using funds from Department of Energy awards, which is the highest number of jobs among the 11 agencies. The fewest number of jobs reported by Michigan recipients is 70.42 jobs using Environmental Protection Agency awards.

The first chart shows the total Recovery Act awarded funds cumulative from February, 2009 for the seven-county Southeast Michigan region. Three counties (i.e., Livingston, Monroe, and St. Clair) have each been awarded less than $10 million, with the lowest amount awarded to Livingston with just under $2.9 million. Wayne County has received the highest cumulative amount at over $1.1 billion. The same data pattern appears for the number of jobs recipients in the seven-county region reported in Quarter 2, 2012 (April 1 – June 30, 2012). Wayne County recipients reported the highest number of jobs (i.e., 761) while Livingston recipients did not report any jobs and only two were reported in Monroe and St. Clair counties.

The first chart shows the 10 cities in the State of Michigan with the highest amount of awarded Recovery Act funds cumulative from February 2009. The amounts range from over $1.7 billion in Lansing to just under $150 million in Wayne. Besides Lansing, only two other Michigan cities have been awarded over $500 million in Recovery Act funds; these are Detroit and Ann Arbor. The second chart shows the 10 Michigan cities with the highest number of recipient reported jobs in Quarter 2, 2012 (April 1 – June 30, 2012), based on the Recovery Act funds. Most of the cities in the second chart also appear in the first chart. Lansing, Detroit, and Ann Arbor again appear as the top three, in that respective order (i.e., 1067.6 jobs in Lansing, 662.5 in Detroit, and 373.6 in Ann Arbor).